Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2011 - 31

small openings in front of the tee, and the
markers are just a yard or so in front of a
brick wall. Whew! "
And then there's Jack Williams, who is
also haunted by tee dreams. " I am trying
to tee off but there is not enough room
to swing the driver, always too cramped a
spot, " he explains.
Golf can cause stress, so anxiety dreams
about the game make sense. But the
dreams about golf may not be related to
golf at all. That's what Shaun Goodsell, a
local sports performance consultant (see
Ask the Expert, page 18) thinks.
" Dreams are the brain's way of trying to
process, unconsciously, things that we are
trying to fi gure out, " Goodsell says. " Anything
that's recurring is the brain's way of
saying, 'I am trying to work out confl ict. I
am trying to work out this situation in my
mind.' It usually plays out in something
that is of interest to us. "
Though not a dream analyst by trade,
Goodsell has dabbled in it and tried his
hand at explaining some of the nightmares
we heard about.
s %XTRA HOLES ON THE COURSE&h4HE DREAM
ers probably feel stuck in their life and are
trying to create something different. The
different course represents a different life.
Something different going on. "
s 3MALL CONSTRICTIVE TEEING GROUND&h4HE
golfers probably feel afraid that if they do
something different, the result is not going
to be any different. The fear that they are
going to hit somebody is the fear that if
they do something different they are going
to hurt somebody. "
s .ARROWING CHUTE OF TREES ON THE lRST
TEE& h4HERE IS SOMETHING BEARING DOWN ON
that person that they need to make a decision
about, and the window of time to
make that decision is closing. "
Perhaps a nightmare recurs because the
real-life problems aren't resolved, or others
crop up in their wake.
" When a dream emerges over time, "
Goodsell says, " it is grounded in some core
beliefs that a psychologist might refer to
as a useless core belief. Such as, 'I believe I
have to always please everyone.' It's a core
belief that is keeping you stuck in life. "
But Goodsell maintains that the anxiety
golfers experience in their dreams isn't really
about fear on the course; the subcon " I
don't think recurring golf
nightmares have anything to
do with golf. " - Shaun Goodsell
scious may just be trying to communicate
in a familiar realm.
" If you are a golfer, you enjoy golf, and
you are intellectually trying to deal with
a crisis in your life, then the crisis is going
to play itself out in your golf dream, "
he says. " And therapeutically speaking, it
would be interesting to see what confl ict
golfers with recurring nightmares are
working out, not just with their golf game
but in their life. Most dreams don't have
anything to do with what they appear to.
I don't think those recurring golf nightmares
have anything to do with golf. "
Whatever they relate to, Goodsell believes
that dreams can be instructive, and
that they can be used in a positive manner
to advise a person's real life (see sidebar).
And perhaps Charles Dickens would
agree. Who has ever made better use of
the counsel received from a nightmare
than Ebenezer Scrooge? MG
Changing Nightmares into Day Dreams
Sports performance consultant Shaun Goodsell suggests that golfers pay attention to
their recurring dreams because they can often be very insightful. " They can be a symptom
that your brain is trying to work something out, " he explains.
The engaging aspect of dream analysis for the sake of personal growth is that everyone
has dreams and has a curiosity about them. We asked Goodsell to suggest ways to
turn a nightmare into something positive, and he offered these four ideas:
Focus on the theme of
the dream rather
than the content.
Ask yourself how you
would rewrite the
dream without rewriting
the circumstances.
Think about what the
dream is trying to
resolve.
Look for possible takeaways
that, if resolved,
would help your life as
well as your game.
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Directory 2011 MINNESOTAGOLFER
29
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Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2011

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